Count Alexander Stavropulos
In Biggles and the Gun Runners, Count Alexander Stavropulos was the owner of an air transportation company which employed Biggles after he had faked a retirement from the Air Police. The Count had sent for Biggles after learning of his retirement and was interested in hiring him because he needed pilots who were reliable, knowledgeable and above average ability because of the long distances they had to cover to whichever remote location they may need to go to deliver their cargo. Biggles accepted th job offer but was not entirely sure he had joined the right organisation. He had faked his retirement in order to be recruited and if possible penetrate whichever air transport concern was conducting gun running operations. However the Count was frank and upfront as can be and there was nothing objectionable in the way he described his air operations. Indeed, he had dropped one pilot for being drunk and had warned his pilots never to do anything illegal, such as doing a little smuggling on the side. Biggles found the Count to be a man of between forty five and fifty, with hair slightly receding from the temples. He was of average height and rather plump and dressed immaculately and expensively. He was "sleek; sleek in the manner of a house cat". There was nothing objectionable about the Count but Biggles had learnt by experience that the Count was of a type he would not trust too far until he knew him better. Indeed, unravelling the puzzle of the Count would form a major preoccupation for Biggles in the book. Biggles would later discover that, at least in the case of one shipment, his aircraft did carry guns and were meant to be delivered under dubious circumstances. However he concluded that this was the work of double dealing by Miskoff, the Count's traffic manager. Biggles believed that the Count knew nothing about it as he never personally inspected the cargo which reached his operating base for onward delivery. When the Count learnt that two of his Lockheed Constellation aircraft had been forced down by the Congolese Air Force in the Sudd for suspected gun running, he made arrangements to fly to Congo to get the facts and demand compensation. He even offered a lift to Algy and Ginger who wanted to go and look for Biggles. This decision, Algy told Biggles, "took the wind out of my sails". If the Count was really in the know about gun running, why would he step into "the lion's den" of the Congo and why even bother with the remote likelihood of compensation. This only reinforced Biggles' conviction that the Count was, like all his pilots, just an innocent dupe. At the end of the book, the Count was grateful to Biggles for having got him out of a difficult situation and for saving one of his aircraft. He followed Biggles' advice on what to do and in the end obtained compensation for the one Constellation which had been destroyed. Grateful for the help of the Air Police, he wrote a letter of thanks to Air Commodore Raymond and placed his aerodrome and organisation at the disposal of the Air Police should they ever be required. The receptionist at the Grosvenor Hotel in London, where the Count often stayed, thought that the Count was "one of those Greek oil millionaires" although this was never proven in the text. Nonetheless, it is quite likely that the Count had other business interests. His air transport company paid its pilots well, too well, by Biggles' standards, to show much of a profit. Yet the Count was wealthy and this probably meant he had other sources of income. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters